Living 24 hours with someone you like might be both a blessing and torture.
These days, Hakyoung was realizing this acutely.
Yumyeong had a habit of washing up in the evening. Because he slept heavily in the mornings, it was a habit born from wanting to sleep until the very last moment.
After washing, he would unhesitatingly barge into Hakyoung’s room with his skin still moist. His skin, which glistened from absorbing water, had strangely little body hair.
“Yumyeong has no hair. Not even armpit hair.”
Thanks to Hanju tattling as if reporting his friend’s shame, Hakyoung learned the reason. Whether it was true or not, his smooth calves without leg hair shone like pearls even under fluorescent lights. Yumyeong himself seemed to dislike this characteristic of his, but Hakyoung sometimes felt dizzy from imagining the parts he couldn’t see.
Another thing—Yumyeong found it bothersome to dry his hair with a hairdryer, so right after showering, the back of his neck was always moistly damp. It was an area his gaze kept sticking to even when he tried not to look.
Sometimes he would witness Yumyeong changing clothes. This was absolutely not intentional, but an accident. Once, when he knocked on the dormitory room door and heard “come in” from inside, he opened the door without suspicion, only to run into Yumyeong threading his legs into his pants right there.
The moment Yumyeong, sensing his presence, turned around with a “Hm?”, Hakyoung unconsciously slammed the door shut. With the feeling of having witnessed something he shouldn’t have seen.
Though it was truly a fleeting moment, those slender white legs stuck in his mind and wouldn’t come off for a while. From then on, even when Yumyeong walked around wearing just short shorts, he suffered greatly as the image he’d seen then would automatically come to mind.
Sometimes he would stare at Yumyeong’s face in a daze without realizing it.
Come to think of it, this was a habit from childhood too, so it wasn’t very unfamiliar.
At some point, when they had moving classes or had to take seats again, he naturally sat in seats where he could continuously see Yumyeong’s face.
Hakyoung’s favorite spot was directly diagonally behind Yumyeong. An angle where he could see very well the lines running down his forehead, cheeks, and jawline, and the length of his eyelashes.
Better than looking was when he secretly called Yumyeong from that diagonal back seat.
‘Shin Yumyeong.’
Then Yumyeong, who had been resting his chin on his hand, would send his gaze backward. When their eyes met, he would ask only with his eyes. Indifferent pupils as if asking “why.” He really liked that wordless gaze that responded every time he called.
***
In front of the dorm supervisor’s office on the first floor of the dormitory, a paper recording the current demerit status was always posted.
1 point for consuming outside food, 1 point for using electronic devices during self-study time, 1 point for unauthorized outings after roll call, 3 points for smoking and drinking, 5 points for applying to stay in the dormitory on weekends but neither going home nor getting caught staying out overnight, etc… When 20 demerit points accumulated, one would be expelled from the dormitory for two weeks, and at that time, whether it killed them or fed them, they had to commute from outside the school. The bonus was their parents’ nagging about how badly they must have lived in the dormitory to get kicked out. Therefore, students were very careful about managing their demerits.
Of course, it was also possible to reduce demerits. 0.5 points for volunteering for dormitory deep cleaning, 0.5 points for cafeteria cleaning, etc… However, since reducing them was much harder than accumulating them, it was a method rarely chosen unless one was truly in dire straits. There was only one way: not getting caught in the first place.
Yumyeong was fairly thorough about managing demerits. Even in his first year, he’d only been caught once for outside food and had exactly 1 point, and even that he’d eliminated through cleaning volunteer work. The reason was simple: he hated commuting. Moreover, in his case, it obviously wouldn’t end with just disappointed scolding. He didn’t want to create opportunities to be evaluated and faulted by his father.
Then one day, a mass update of demerit statuses was posted in the dormitory.
Hearing this news, students flocked to the dorm supervisor’s office without exception. Afterward, the students who confirmed the contents were greatly stirred up by the reason for the demerits. Because the reason was none other than ‘possession of pornography.’
“Pathetic guys, couldn’t they find anything else to get caught with… Hmph.”
Yumyeong glanced at that paper dismissively and passed by.
“How did they get caught?”
Hanju, who had likewise checked the demerits while entering, followed behind making a fuss. Yumyeong shook his head.
“Who knows. Ask the guys who got caught.”
“I’m really nervous. What did they get caught with? Manga? Magazines? What if they got caught by searching phones or laptops?”
“What do you mean what if? You don’t secretly look at that stuff, do you?”
“No, it’s not that…”
Setting aside having physical items confiscated, it certainly became uncomfortable in many ways if they checked phones too. Even if one hadn’t done anything particularly suspicious with it. Censoring search history and internet addresses would be excessive invasion of privacy.
“I don’t think it’s electronic devices… Well, at most it would be books or something.”
“Right? Anyway, what’s all this about? Isn’t it saying all the kids who got demerits this time got them for that?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
It was a common thing. Since vigorous high school students were crammed into a place like a dormitory, it wasn’t strange for traces of those desires to leak out anywhere. It was understandable, but they had to endure the contempt and pathetic glares from female students. Usually, even out of fear of that, most would either hide it thoroughly or not touch it at all.
Yumyeong’s eyes rolled.
‘How does someone like Ryu Hakyoung solve it?’
It was a random thought, but he was curious about that. Regular pornography wouldn’t solve(?) it, after all.
Sunmin was also someone who liked men, but having seen him up close, Yumyeong somehow got the impression that he seemed so plain he might even be asexual, like he could live without it. But Hakyoung was the opposite. Somehow he seemed quick-handed, and if he wanted something, it didn’t seem like he’d particularly suppress his desires.
Thinking about why he got that impression, it was definitely greatly influenced by the fact that he’d already done away with his first kiss. One might think “what’s the big deal about just a kiss?”, but if the partner is a guy, the story becomes a bit different. All the more so in that people who like the same sex are difficult to find.
To like men, be sexually attracted to them, and be able to act to satisfy those desires—he really seemed like someone from another planet. Moreover, from what he’d heard, Hakyoung seemed like the type who endlessly went out searching for love.
‘Come to think of it, Ryu Hakyoung lived in America. Over there, it might not have been difficult to meet similar people… Wait. Did this bastard actually play around a lot?’
Yumyeong’s experience was just lips meeting lips, a light kiss that was just a peck on the lips. But Hakyoung’s experience somehow seemed different. The fact that when imagining anything with Hakyoung, the picture wasn’t bad because of that beautiful face also strangely made him feel unpleasant.
“Why’s your expression like that?”
“Like what?”
Yumyeong raised his head with a grimace.
“That’s the expression you make when you eat something that tastes terrible.”
“Ah, right. I was imagining something unpleasant.”
“…?”
Leaving Hanju behind, Yumyeong left the dormitory room. Wandering around campus, he could easily find Hakyoung in the study room. He quietly approached and placed his hand on the concentrating shoulder, and the moment the head turned, he raised his index finger. Hakyoung’s face, poked in the cheek as soon as he turned around, changed in a few seconds from unguarded to containing disdain and contempt.
Seeing that, Yumyeong’s shoulders shook. Since it was a study room, he had to laugh quietly.
“What is it?”
Hakyoung asked softly.
“Did you check the demerits? There’s something you got caught for.”
“I haven’t seen it yet.”
“You got caught for possession of pornography?”
At those words, Hakyoung’s face was shrouded in doubt. He immediately stood up from that spot, grabbed his bag, and left the study room. Yumyeong likewise followed behind him.
The stride stretching out those long legs as he walked down was refreshing. Following Hakyoung’s steps that seemed slightly faster than usual, Yumyeong unconsciously hummed a tune. As soon as they passed through the sunlit schoolyard and entered the dormitory, Hakyoung headed toward the front of the dorm supervisor’s office.
Hakyoung quietly scanned the demerit status with his eyes. Yumyeong’s lips twitched as he tried to hold back laughter. Hakyoung’s eyes, which had been scanning the paper up and down once more, turned this way, and the moment their eyes met, his eyebrows shot up.
No matter how he looked at it, it was a prank. The name wasn’t there from the beginning anyway.
Yumyeong ultimately couldn’t hold back his laughter.
“Hahaha!”
“You…”
Hakyoung immediately rushed this way. Yumyeong instinctively bolted.
“Guess there was something that pricked your conscience? Enough to come check right away!”
“Don’t be ridiculous! I checked because I thought it was absurd.”
“You were walking fucking fast though… Kekeke.”
“No way. If it was there, I was going to protest.”
Toward the two people who suddenly started running, the attention of passing students gathered. Leaving behind murmuring voices like “look at that,” “they’re running really scary,” “if they collide it’s two weeks of treatment,” Yumyeong had already escaped outside the school gate and was running over the stream. Though he’d escaped one step faster, he was soon caught up because he’d been running while laughing. Hakyoung, panting, grabbed the back of Yumyeong’s neck.
“Aack, I’m being strangled. You bastard…!”
“Then who told you to run away?”
“It hurts, let go… Quack.”
Yumyeong made strange sounds while twisting his body. Hakyoung held on more firmly from behind to not lose his grip on Yumyeong.
“Don’t try to run away again.”
“I won’t run, really.”
“Really?”
However, the moment he slightly loosened his arms, Yumyeong tried to kick off the ground again. Hakyoung, as if he’d expected this, fiercely hugged Yumyeong tight. A tired laugh burst from Yumyeong.
“Ah! I really won’t run away now. Let me go. Please.”
“I can’t trust you.”
And so, Hakyoung dragged Yumyeong while hugging him and sat him on a bench. Captured in Hakyoung’s arms, Yumyeong was still giggling away.
“What is it, what kind of pornography do you look at so much that you’re worried about demerits?”
“Ha… I really don’t have any.”
“Suspicious~”
Even while caught, Yumyeong continued to provoke and enjoy himself. Hakyoung gazed at such Yumyeong, then said calmly.
“When the real thing is right in front of my eyes, why would I need pornography?”
